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Chaucer's Pilgrims' Way Southwark to Canterbury
Southeast England & London
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Chaucer's Pilgrims' Way (Southwark to Canterbury), 66 miles, 7 days
The modern Pilgrims' Way to Canterbury isn't the path Chaucer’s pilgrims took in The Canterbury Tales.
His merry band didn't follow the North Downs as the modern route does, but forged straight from Southwark to Canterbury along the Roman Watling Street.
That medieval path has long been overlooked, but has now been revived, using footpaths which shadow the road, and open up a peaceful route through the orchards, hop gardens, pilgrim inns and villages of Kent.
St Thomas Becket, the archbishop whose murder brought pilgrims to his shrine in Canterbury, also travelled via Watling Street on occasion, and is remembered at many pilgrim points along the way.
There are also shrines to St William of Perth in Rochester, St Jude in Faversham, and the mysterious St Robert of Newington, whose tomb survives in the village church, complete with limb holes that the devout used to get as close as possible to the saint's relics.
For More Information about Chaucer's Pilgrims Way
This newly-revived route is featured in Kent's Pilgrim Routes by Andy Bull. More information on the book and the route is available here.
Route highlights
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Location
Nearby Places
Nearby Sanctuaries
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Discover holy places, and bring your own beliefs.
Pilgrimage by foot is connected with places and landscape, and how those places make you feel. Read about holy places.
At the British Pilgrimage Trust, we believe a pilgrimage should be made on an individual’s own terms. We are founded on the principle that we can all bring our own beliefs to the journey, accessible and welcoming to all.
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Tom Jones
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Tom Jones
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